I instinctively put my hands around her waist to push her back, but the feel of her slick skin beneath my fingers had a growl building in my chest, and soon I’d forgotten every reason why I’d needed us to stop.
Grabbing her up in my arms, I walked her back the few feet to the now-soaked blanket and laid her down. I wanted to study every inch of her exposed skin—later. I rested my body on top of hers, but propped myself back up to tear off my shirt when she began pulling at it. She captured my mouth with hers as soon as I was lying on top of her again, and I slid my hand up her leg until I got to her knee, and curled it around my hip as I began moving against her.
Harlow broke away from the kiss and dropped her head back on the blanket, and the sexiest noise I’ve ever heard escaped her lips when I rocked against her again. I would’ve done anything in that moment if she would make that sound again.
Releasing her knee, I slowly slid my hand up her thigh and pushed up the material of the skirt she was wearing until it was bunched around her hips. I pressed my mouth to the swell of her breasts, and gently bit down as I trailed my fingers to the inside of her thighs.
“Knox, please,” she whimpered just before I touched her.
And that plea, those two words I’d fantasized about for years and were finally hearing, was what snapped me back.
“Fuck,” I groaned against her skin, and righted her skirt. “Fuck. I can’t,” I said through harsh breaths. Everything in me was roaring with the need to taste of her, but I knew I couldn’t. This night would end up meaning a lot more than it was ever supposed to if I let myself continue. “As much as I want you right here, and right now, I will hate myself later for it if I don’t do this the right way.”
“It’s a few months, Knox, it doesn’t matter to me!”
“It should, because nothing has ever been as important to me.” Shaking my head, I pushed myself away from her and had to drop my head back so I wasn’t looking at her anymore. After taking a minute to gather myself, I looked directly into her eyes. “I’ve waited for you, Harlow Evans, and I will continue to wait for you until you’re eighteen.”
A sharp breath burst from her, and I could see the hurt in her eyes, but she tried to cover it with a teasing smile on her face. “I can’t try to change your mind when you say things like that.” Cupping my face in her hands, she pulled me down to kiss me softly. “I will never love anyone the way I love you. But you better understand that in three months there’s no more running away from me. You’re mine after that.”
I smirked. She had no idea.
Present Day—Richland
THE SHRILL SOUND of a bell jerked me awake. I didn’t know how long I’d been asleep, but in the two seconds it took for me to realize what was happening and fly off my bed and out of the room, I’d already noticed it was dark outside, and I hadn’t moved from the rigid position I’d fallen asleep in. My body ached as I ran to the bay, but soon the adrenaline that always pumped through my veins had me forgetting about the stiff muscles, and I was shaking for a different reason than I had been when I’d gone to sleep. There was a house fire that was quickly spreading to the dwelling next to it; these kinds of calls were what I lived for, were why I became a firefighter in the first place. Being there for EMS to help people who were hurt, yes, any day. Helping old women get their cats out of trees, yeah, it actually happened. Small fires, of course, were the majority of our calls, and were just as important as the freaking cats in the damn trees. But huge house and structure fires, judging by the excited energy that rolled through the truck as we sped through town, were why we were all here.
We’d barely pulled up and started jumping off the truck when a teenage girl in nothing but an oversize T-shirt came running up to us, screaming, “She’s still in there! Please, you have to get her! I can’t believe I did this,” she murmured.
I didn’t have time to ask about that last statement but knew we’d need to talk to her after. “Who?” I yelled over the noise of the roaring fire and other members of my crew.
“Shit, shit, shit. Natalie! The girl I’m babysitting, she’s only three! I swear I didn’t know anything would happen. We fell asleep. The candles!”
She was pulling at her hair and obviously panicking; her breathing was shallow when she wasn’t swearing over and over again. I grabbed her arm and pushed her back a few steps toward my sergeant as I quickly asked, “Where was she when you last saw her?”
“Sleeping in her room. We tried to go to her window, but the fire was too big there!”
“Where is that?”
“Th-th-the very back of the house on the first floor! Last room on the hall!”
I was already running toward the house before she’d finished telling me. Our rapid conversation had barely lasted a minute, but that minute still could’ve been too long. The fire was too big—most of it near the back of the house where the girl’s room supposedly was. The smoke alone had been doing damage the whole time.